It will be several months yet before there’s even an option for evacuated Wheatley residents and business owners to get back to some kind of normalcy.
During a virtual community meeting on Saturday, Jennifer Barton, assistant deputy minister with the Ministry of Northern Development, Mines, Natural Resources, and Forestry said the investigation into the August 26th gas explosion is making progress, but will still take time.
“We believe that the remaining investigation activities that need to occur will take approximately eight additional weeks,” Barton says. “Once completed, the investigation team and our expert team of consultants will be identifying the mitigation or remediation options, and we believe it will take approximately six weeks for that mitigation to be completed.”
Barton says the government and municipality are balancing the sense of urgency to resolve the situation with the need to do so in a safe, scientifically sound manner that creates a long-term solution for the community.
Officials from consulting firm Golder and Associates say they are into the final stage of the investigation into two main “areas of potential environmental concern” or APECs, before being able to move onto the mitigation and remediation phase.
Provincial officials say they are looking into the timelines for financial assistance for affected residents. The current program is in place until March 31st, but the evacuation will remain in effect for weeks, possibly months beyond that date.
Roughly 150 viewers tuned into the virtual meeting on Facebook and YouTube on Saturday, some wondering about whether the municipality would consider buying affected properties so residents can move on with their lives.
Chatham-Kent CAO Don Shropshire says, to be blunt, no.
“Over the past several years we’ve had a number of our neighbours, their homes have also been threatened, people such as the folks along Lake Erie that have major erosion issues and some of their homes were destroyed,” Shropshire explains. “Even in those cases we were not in a position to purchase those properties.”
Other concerns were raised over winterization of homes, tax bills, and compensation for renters, among other issues.